Pretty Baby

Pretty Baby is a 1978 American historical drama film directed by Louis Malle, written by Polly Platt, and starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, and Susan Sarandon. Set in 1917, it focuses on a 12-year-old girl being raised in a brothel in the Storyville red-light district of New Orleans by her prostitute mother. Barbara Steele, Diana Scarwid, and Antonio Fargas appear in supporting roles. The film is based on the true account of a young girl who was sexually exploited by being forced into prostitution by her mother, which was recounted in historian Al Rose's 1974 book Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District, as well as the life of photographer Ernest Bellocq, who photographed various New Orleans prostitutes in the early-twentieth century. Its title is derived from the Tony Jackson song of the same name, which is used in the soundtrack. The project marked Malle's first American film production, as his previous works had been produced in his native France. Filming took place on location in New Orleans in the spring of 1977. The film was released theatrically in the United States in April 1978, and screened at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or and won the Technical Grand Prize. Ferdinand Morton's score also earned the film an Academy Award nomination for Best Music. Although the film was mostly praised by critics, it caused significant controversy due to its depiction of child sexual exploitation and the on-screen nudity of Shields, who was 11 years old at the time of filming. Plot In 1917, during the last months of legal prostitution in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, Hattie is a prostitute working at an elegant brothel run by the elderly, cocaine-addicted Madame Nell. Hattie has given birth to a baby boy and has a 12-year-old daughter, Violet, who lives in the house. When photographer Ernest Bellocq arrives with his camera, Hattie and Violet are the only people awake. He requests to photograph them, which Madame Nell agrees only after he offers to pay her.